Very Well
by MasterPassionCreed
Summary: And you are an excellent test subject. - Set after the end of JenovaII's Hell or High Water.


**Very Well**

_And you are an excellent test subject._

"And what would _that _be?"

With a sigh, Doug turned to the source of the voice. It was a familiar question by then; the shade of annoyance in her words, on the other hand, was a little too strong for his taste. To his well-trained ear, this could only mean two things: that she was likely to have at least a faint idea of what it was about, and that she did not like it.

"A hidden file, this is for sure. The directory and the password were typed manually in here."  
"Oh. I almost forgot what we are dealing with here. Paranoid scientists."

Even with his coffee cup glued to his lips, Doug found it hard to hide a smile.

Among the essential activities she had needed to restart with her return, the cooperative testing had been one of the first choices. She restored several testing tracks daily and looked for abandoned ones, deeper in the facility; regardless of their difficulty, the bots ended up in old Aperture with growing frequency.

He was too well aware of it. There was a lot to dig up, and too much to understand yet. GLaDOS' protests had not stopped him; day after day, with a kind insistence, he had eventually won. His current occupation was to help her make her way among millions of files, and to make his own in her restless sarcasm.

He was sorry about her suffering, and slightly irritated about the way she coped with it; but he always tolerated it willingly, with a thin smile. It was a labour of love – he knew the facility, knew her, better than it seemed. She was not stable enough to make it alone. Not yet.

"_Manipulated Testing Tracks, Corrections_. What in the world-?"

From GLaDOS' shocked tone, he assumed that had to be the meaning of the long line of binary on the first page. As he scrolled down, dozens of diagrams and projects unfolded under their eyes. It took him a while to figure it out.

"Test chambers, modified from original models? What does this mean?"

But she was centuries ahead of him when it came to her projects. Her yellow glare was glued to the screen, flickering, unstable – in that moment, he could have sworn he was reading in them the deepest fury he had ever witnessed. It was realization, maybe reminiscing, but he was sure of it; it was not good for her.

"They wanted to stop me."

He stood up immediately, startled by the loud bang. He could not move for several instants; the just watched the cracks open on the desk, from under her fist. An old instinct of fear relived in him – it was just a moment, but enough to see the green, and the dying faces. She was talking.

"No more than forty-eight hours. Whoever did this must have died soon. I did feel a few computers, yes, but they were offline. So useless, for all of them. They were trapped like rats. Don't you see, Douglas? How could you forget?"

"Calm down."

He did not let go. His grip on her forearm froze them both.  
He held tight, clinging to his own strength as he once did with his tenacity. He had lived through his personal hell; he was one of the few who could understand. That was the past, and he could only be glad – glad that their hells had met, somewhere in time. It was better than to face it alone.

"You are no longer there. You are here. It is here, now, and us. All of us."

He felt the metal cool under his grip. She was just staring at nothing.

"It is still… hard. Sometimes."  
"I know."

The long silence that followed was not empty – it was full of pain, of gone images. But Doug knew exactly what to expect from her. She was not able to bask in her past for too long, especially in that state; she always wanted to move on, to leave the mistakes behind. She was still the essence of Aperture, and would always be.

GLaDOS sat and took control of the computer. She pointed her index finger at a particular sequence of numbers and sketches.

"Look at this. You remember enough to notice the difference; you cannot see a single trace of acid, pits, lasers. There is no danger in these blueprints. They took my projects from some backup file, and wanted to… to make their survival possible."

Doug did nothing but watch in silence. He had lived it all firsthand, he still bore his scars; he remembered the events this file was a relic of. And he had learnt many more truths, in the long, red darkness that had accompanied so much of his life. He knew how some wounds never heal, and how some do, but in too many years to count them. He knew that, for some things, there were the right times to move on.

He knew he was daring, with the right amount of insanity to try.  
With a hand gently resting on her shoulder, he collected his courage, and spoke.

"Maybe, in a way, they were right. Maybe it was not necessary. Danger is not always the best thing to forward knowledge and science, you know."

GLaDOS could not think of an answer right away. There was so much to be told; the statistics, the improvement in subjects' performances, the videos and the intimate bond between death and tests – it went way too far in her memory, too deep in her roots.  
Before she could react in any way, she heard quiet steps, and both felt playful taps on their shoulders.

"Ah," she exclaimed, with a hint of relief in her smile. "Good morning, Chell."

"Up early, dear. Did you sleep well?"

She made a little jump and nodded. After her delicious slice of cake, she was feeling great; and her good mood always made her especially curious. It wasn't long before she approached the screen and shot an inquisitive glance at both.  
Doug giggled. It was impossible to hide anything from her.

"GLaDOS and I were… discussing the dangers of testing."

Chell rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Neither of them needed further explanation.

"I guess our former employee would like to lodge a complaint," he laughed. "Is that so, Chell?"

She snorted. Whatever they were discussing, there was not much to argue about. All she knew about testing was danger – that, and the fact that Aperture's deadly elements were very deadly. She had been lucky enough to avoid them all along, and she was still there. End of the story.

"Seriously, now, look at this," GLaDOS snapped. She didn't like to joke about really important matters. "Modified tests. I'll call them _The Undeadly Chambers_from now on – that's how they deserve to be called anyway. Did you know that the absence of danger makes tests 70% less interesting to the subjects? And that the motivation and self-esteem increases 40% more with every accomplishment? I was even too kind, believe me. If only they had appreciated-"

A tight grip made her turn around, and her list of facts dropped dead in a surprised silence.

Chell had her index finger on her mouth, and a defiant grin on her face. It was a face GLaDOS knew too well – she had seen it countless times in her past and her present, in death and in life. It was the way her face looked when she had decided something; her expression of victory and certainty, the one she showed when she knew she had already won. Chell pointed her hand to the keyboard; and when the notepad was ready for her, she pressed the keys in all haste, just to turn to her triumphantly.

GLaDOS cringed.

"You must be kidding me. _Again_."

As Chell shook her head, refusing to change her mind with a fierce smile, Doug felt memories rush in him, and a pang of melancholic pain in his chest. It was the way she had always been; the same bravery, the same stubbornness.

"She is not wrong, GLaDOS," he replied, trying to sound indifferent. "She may prove a point. Prove that… they were not completely wrong. Would you refuse to perform an experiment? Wouldn't you agree to it, for Science?"

The awkward silence that followed could not count as no, and that was enough for Chell. It took her mere seconds to jump away. She tilted her head and waited, already on the verge of the elevator.

GLaDOS could not chase away the astonishment. She would probably never know where such a frail, small human being could find so much energy. Life seemed to fill her whole body like a fountain, unstoppable; when she was happy and in good health, her spark of vitality shone all around. It had always been so hard, trying to link Chell to death. She had lived through it, countless of times. Every time she had fallen, she had stood up in a few seconds. No matter how many times – she was always reborn.

And now she stood there, near the same elevator that had once imprisoned, asking for a new challenge. She hadn't changed.  
She was her Chell, and she still was her favourite test subject.

GLaDOS opened the glass doors with a quick gesture. On the abandoned screen, in the tiny black window, the words Chell had typed still shone.

_Build them for me._

"I won't ask twice. Are you sure of this?"

As little as GLaDOS expected an answer, she had to try anyway. A weird feeling of anxiety had accompanied her in the past hours, sneaking in her work and her thoughts. Maybe, matching Chell with a portal device was something she still found unsettling; they hall had gone through countless problems, and she had much to get over. Maybe she was worried about her. Which made no sense at all, as the tests were zero percent dangerous.

The usual silence on Chell's part was replaced by the response of a screen. The camera moved slowly, lowering itself to meet a well-known sight.  
She had chosen a common jumpsuit – the one she was familiar with. She had polished the pair of Long Fall Boots to the point that they could be seen shining through the camera; and on the Portal Gun, her Portal Gun, two small LEDs flickered like crazy.

"Stop the blabbering, you two. Leave… sweetcakes alone."

"Io! Io! Tests. Space tests! Awesome as space!"

"The fact that I opened the communication from the Handheld Portal Device does not mean you can harass her anytime. Or, even worse, that you can suggest her what to do. She insisted to have you with her in this experiment. Deserve it."

Chell showed her bright smile to the camera, waving at her little audience in the AI chamber.

"You know, Orange and Blue offer enough entertainment by themselves. I can always-"  
"Aww, give her a break! She deserves her party, doesn't she?"

She jumped and waved a little more. She hadn't met Wheatley that day yet.

"Hello, luv! Ahh, this is gonna be great. Ol' Wheatley will watch you from here! Gotta admit, testing still feels good."  
"Do you want me to turn you off?"  
"No! Nononono. Fine this way, thank you."

From the chamber, still in front of the camera, Chell pouted. Although they were much fun to hear, she did not want them to start arguing for real. She lifted her Portal Gun to the ceiling, letting them know she was ready.

"Very good. Our challenge begins, Chell. For Science. Let's see if you can show me how… interesting… these completely safe chambers can be. You have a limited amount of time – not really. That was a joke. I joke when I am nervous. Or lie, but that's not the case. Just do your best. You will find a keyboard at the end of every chamber, just in case you need something. Orange and Blue are ready to help, right here."

A wave of cheerful synthetic noises greeted her from the speakers. Chell bowed a little to thank them, and raised her free hand.  
Her fingers traced a countdown. Everyone focused on the numbers they were forming.

_Three._

_Two._

_One._

As she raced to the first cube, Wheatley decided it would be smart to encourage her a little more.

"There you go, luv! Let's make some science!"  
"She does not need a cheerleader. You moron."

"Pretty impressive, huh?"  
"Considering she has not tested in at least two years, yes, it is, moron. Where did you get your new powers of observation?"

Her results were still brilliant. She had to admit it – those test chambers were complex enough without bone-consuming gels or acid goo. Funnels, bridges and switches made of brilliant logic a necessary requirement; Chell's long training, joined with her familiarity with portals, was making it all fantastic.  
She also tried to solve chambers in more than one possible way, recreating tricks and shortcuts; something GLaDOS had never seen in tests solved by regular subjects.  
She was giving it all to make it interesting and useful. And GLaDOS knew it already, before the penultimate chamber was complete. Chell was going to win again.

"I always knew she was the best," Doug whispered. "The first condition to make it is to believe you can make it. The rest comes in time."

With all the implications, good and bad, disastrous and life-changing, GLaDOS knew he was right. It was another piece of truth – another little step, ready to be added to the new journey they were in together. After all this time, she could do nothing but accept it.

"One more to go," she spoke softly, as her test subject made her way to the open door. "You really are doing great, Chell."

At the sound of her words, the woman stopped. She did nothing more than stare at the camera, for quite a long time. GLaDOS could not read her features for sure – but if she had been forced to take a wild guess on her feelings, she would have picked either deep in thought or strongly emotional.  
She merely gazed back for a while.

"You can go now, the door is open. You don't want to affect your brilliant results with unnecessary waiting, do you?"

Chell walked away slowly, without a gesture. Her steps sounded regular and hesitant until she got to the elevator; right after, GLaDOS heard her approaching the keyboard, and her fingers pressed a few keys.

The elevator had already left when her message reached the computer monitor. The text was too small for Doug to read it clearly on the spot. He was curious when he started getting near to read it – he was in shock when GLaDOS, mute and still for several moments, covered her face with her hands.

The old monitor read just a few words.

_I never thought I'd hear it from you again._  
_

* * *

_Here it is! My gift is written. Because HoHW is amazing, and you are amazing, and I am so happy to have you back and have the company of your friends.  
I hope you liked my idea and its development. It was not easy, but it is over and I am so happy._

Tight hugs, and there; HoHW has more fanfiction dedicated to the awesome story it is.

Ely

- Posting on my piece of fanfiction dedicated to Hell or High Water, written as a welcome back gift for Jen. I am so glad she liked it. :3


End file.
